SPRING’S HERE, REALLY

After a long, tough winter and a mud season that seemed endless, spring has come at last to our part of Maine. Now is the time to get out into the woods and along the seashore, while there’s still a nip in the air and before the black flies begin biting. They should show up around the middle of May.

The first wild flowers are beginning to appear, notably a little yellow thing that looks something like a dandelion, called colt’s foot. Red maples are in bloom, giving some hillsides a rosy cast in the spring sunshine. Buds on trees and bushes are about to burst forth. Pussy willows have come and almost gone already.

You will hear plenty of bird songs already, says Judy Markowsky, director of the Fields Pond Audubon Cent-er in Holden. Chickadees have been chirping since February. Purple finches have begun their bright-spirited warble, along with gold finches, with their higher, lispy song.

Woodpeckers can be heard, drilling for food, flickers and yellow-bellied sapsuckers are also about. One hiker claims to have heard a whip-poor-will on Sears Island, although they don’t usually appear until late May.

Cardinals have been around all winter, but they are just now beginning to sing. Some Vs of Canada geese have already been sighted and dense flocks of Eider ducks soon will be swarming up the Penobscot River toward the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

So make good use of these beautiful spring days. If birds are your thing, you can keep in mind that the Fields Pond Audubon Center (989-2591) will be conducting a half-dozen bird walks in May. Good luck, and may you beat the black flies.